Raquel Laguna/ SUCOPRESS. Actors Michael Urie and Christa Miller, and co-creator, writer and executive producer Bill Lawrence talk in this interview about Shrinking Season 2. Shrinking follows a grieving therapist (played by Jason Segel) who starts to break the rules and tell his clients exactly what he thinks. Ignoring his training and ethics, he finds himself making huge, tumultuous changes to people’s lives … including his own. The series also stars multi-award winner Harrison Ford and was created by Emmy Award winners Bill Lawrence, Brett Goldstein and Segel. In addition to Segel and Ford, Shrinking stars Emmy Award nominee Christa Miller, Emmy Award nominee Jessica Williams, Luke Tennie, Michael Urie, Lukita Maxwell and Ted McGinley. Goldstein will appear as a special guest star in season two. Shrinking Season 2, now on Apple TV+.
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PeopleTranscript
00:00What attracted you to this project?
00:03Well, when I heard who was doing this show, when I heard about this show, when I first
00:09heard about the show, and I heard that it was Bill Lawrence and Britt Goldstein with
00:14Jason Segel, I thought, well, these are major heavy hitters, and their track record is incredible.
00:21And I had read the first episode, and it was so good.
00:26It was funny and adult and fresh, and I hadn't really read anything quite like it, and I'd
00:32never really been in anything so naturalistic on camera.
00:40So I was very eager to win this job.
00:45And I auditioned, I made a tape, and sent it in, and tried to forget about it.
00:51And then later, they asked me to be part of the show, and it has been very rewarding.
01:02Bryan's energy and positivity are amazing.
01:06How does his relationship with Jimmy evolve in season two, especially as Jimmy continues
01:14to work through his grief?
01:18So as Jimmy works through his grief over the loss of his wife, he makes some personal growths
01:29and some personal mistakes.
01:32And sometimes that affects the people around him, his friends and chosen family and actual
01:40family.
01:41And one of those things is that he begins a relationship with his co-worker, Gabby,
01:47which he keeps from a lot of people, including his best friend, me.
01:55So when I find out, when Bryan finds out that it's been kept from him, it really bothers
02:03him.
02:04And it causes them to butt heads and have to work through this new thing, which Bryan
02:13makes about himself, and is in part about one of Bryan's own issues, which is he's trying
02:24to figure out who he is in relationship to Jimmy after coming out of the closet.
02:31They became friends when they were both straight, and Bryan was in the closet.
02:35And now, years later, is their relationship, has it evolved yet?
02:39Has it yet changed with Bryan's change?
02:50I think things are chipping away at her.
02:55And so I think she gets in trouble from having a big heart, and she thinks she's been rebuffed
03:01and starts feeling a little blue.
03:05I think she is going through a hard time this season.
03:24I mean, for me, I'm always attracted to comedy that comes out of a character, as opposed
03:28to doing like a bum, bum, bum joke.
03:33So anything can be...
03:36The writing is so good on this show.
03:38It's so strong.
03:39It's so funny.
03:40And, you know, to be able to be vulnerable and real and have an authentic moment and
03:44still know that there's jokes in it, and they'll just come, because the writing is so good.
03:50What inspired the show, unfortunately, was two real things, which is, one, I had a person
03:58in my life who this happened to.
04:01It was not a therapist.
04:02It was a doctor, whose wife, and unfortunately, in his case, child, were killed.
04:08And all that was left was him and one of his children.
04:13And that just stuck with me, watching him struggle and persevere.
04:16And so that's kind of the genesis for the idea.
04:18And Brett and I were both working on shows about therapists, and so we decided to do
04:22it together with Jason.
04:25And then the other thing that inspired the show, unfortunately, is the only reason you
04:29can write a comedy about grief is right now, almost everybody we talk to is at most one
04:38or two degrees separated from actual grief in their life, whether it's a parent struggling,
04:43watching them struggle mentally, or age, or a family member, or a kid who feels buried
04:49in the world's problems.
04:51And it is a bummer that grief is such a prevalent issue that it's almost a zeitgeisty thing
04:59to do a comedy about it.
05:00But I think the positive side is finding out that there's a lot of people like us that
05:04are trying to laugh and smile their way through it.
05:07The show is very popular.
05:09What can fans expect from season two?
05:13Sure.
05:14The first season was about grief, and when we tried to sell the show, we said, the second
05:19season's about forgiveness, because all the therapists we talked to said, if you go through
05:27something big and traumatic like this, until you really forgive, and your hearts can be
05:31very hard to move forward.
05:33And I think people will understand the story we're telling right from the first episode
05:39when they see who the added character is for the year.
05:44And it's complicated, and I can't say how it ends, but I think it really works.